


The Examiner’s Deck

by caprigender



Series: Lumen Medicus [2]
Category: Campaign (Podcast), Campaign: Skyjacks (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Original luminary card, Takes place some vague and undefined future time, canon typical gambling, spoilers for episode 26
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:08:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24174868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caprigender/pseuds/caprigender
Summary: Strange new cards and local variations of Illimat are things you have to watch out for when you’re playing games with strangers.Dead friends usually aren’t.
Series: Lumen Medicus [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1745599
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	The Examiner’s Deck

Travis is gambling when he first sees it.

He claims he’s not gambling. He doesn’t gamble. Gambling implies the possibility of loss, implies that he might not sweep the competition so entirely that everyone leaves both embarrassed and impressed, implies that he doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing when there’s an Illimat deck on the table. Travis doesn’t lose so what he does couldn’t possibly be gambling.

Except that he has lost. Or rather, this piece-of-ballast skyjack in this mariner-cursed bar just cheated him out of a clear victory with a cheap fake play. And the worst part of it is that the rest of the players seem to think the cheater has the right of it all.

No, the worst part is that he’s lost about three watches on this disastrous excuse for a game.

No. The worst part is the card the cheater played.

“That’s not a real luminary!” Travis yells, still furious, still refusing to accept loss. And he’s right. Of course he’s right. When has he ever been wrong? Never. And never about Illimat of all things.

The airiners around the table exchange Looks with a capital L and the bravest of the scheming foxes says “Listen, buddy, you agreed to use Ianov’s deck when we started. If unorthodox Luminaries was a problem you should have said something then.”

It’s a reasonable argument. One he could see himself using if he wanted to cheat in such a flagrantly ridiculous sort of way. Sure, just switch up the whole damn deck, why don’t you? Anybody can just paint up a new card, can’t they?

The tired eyes on the card stock stare up at him. Deep circles behind frail glasses. The paint is slightly faded, the corners are rounded and the edges fuzzy from years of shuffling. This wasn’t a quick con. It couldn’t have been. And that only makes him even more nervous.

“That’s not a real luminary!” He insists, a little bit softer this time. He’s not wrong about this. He can’t be. Not just because it’s Illimat but because he’s not sure what it means that he knows the face framed in that card.

The reasonable airiner takes up his soothing tone again. “The Doctor is a real luminary in these parts. Not much played, not easy to win with, but Ianov’s got a fondness for it and Manu won fair and square.”

Dref Wormwood stares sullenly at Travis from his post in the Winter Court. “You really sh-should ask for the rules before just d-diving into gambling games with strangers,” his ink and paper likeness seems to say. “You have no one to blame but yourself.” But he should know better by now. Blame slides off of Travis like rain off a duck’s back. It won’t start sticking just cause one upstart junior folk god thinks that it should.

Travis picks the Doctor up off the table and examines it. He flips the card over, inspects the pattern on the back. The other players tense but no one moves to stop him. He turns back to the face, Dref’s face, and sighs to himself.

“You know, this is all your fault.” He can almost hear his friend’s indignant spluttering in response. “Yes, your fault. If you had the common decency to stay alive or at least become a card that made any sense at all then I wouldn’t be in this mess.” Dref doesn’t answer him, imagined or otherwise. Maybe death is still a sensitive subject. Travis frowns at the card. Unbelievable. Absolutely ridiculous.

Travis digs a fistful of watches out of his pocket and slaps them down on the Illimat board.

“Double or nothing,” he says, “Same rules apply but if I win,” he flips the card around between his fingers. Dref ducks and weaves between his knuckles, disappears up his shirt sleeve, reappears when he plucks it from behind Ianov’s ear. Manu rolls his eyes and the other one, the reasonable one whose name Travis can’t remember, he fights down a slight smile. Travis smirks and lays out his terms. “If I win I want this deck.”

**Author's Note:**

> This idea of Luminary Dref has taken hold of me so there might be more soon?! Idk! I’ve been so burnt out and despondent lately I’m just glad that I’m writing again and making my horrible words everybody else’s problem


End file.
